THE EMEU. 281 
their assistance in this task. The eggs which are laid around the margin of 
the nest are not sat upon, and consequently are not hatched, so that when 
the eggs within the nest are quite hard, and the young bird is nearly developed, 
those around are quite fit for food. Their object is supposed to be to give 
nourishment to the young birds before they are strong enough to follow their 
parents and forage for themselves. These eggs are put to various useful 
purposes. Not only are they eaten, but the shell is carefully preserved and 
chipped into spoons and ladles, or the entire shell employed as a water 
vessel, the aperture at the top being stuffed with grass. 
The feathers are too well known to need description. Onan average, each 
feather is worth about a shilling. 
The flesh of the Ostrich is tolerably good, and is said to resemble that of 
the zebra. It is, however, only the young Ostrich that furnishes a good enter- 
tainment, for the flesh of the old bird is rank and tough. The fat is highly 
valued, and when melted is of a bright orange colour. It is mostly eaten 
with millet flour, and is also stirred into the egg while roasting, so as 
to make a rude but well-flavoured omelet. 
The voice of the Ostrich is a deep, hollow, rumbling sound, so like the roar 
of the lion that even practised ears have been deceived by it, and taken 
the harmless Ostrich for a 
prowling lion. In its wild 
state the Ostrich is thought 
to live from twenty to thirty 
years. 
In the male bird, the 
lower part of the neck and 
the body are deep glossy 
black, with a few white fea- 
thers, which are barely visi- 
ble except when the plumage 
is ruffled. The plumes of (if 
the wings and tail are white. y 
The female is ashen brown, (V4 
sprinkled with white, and Wy 
her tail and wing plumes 
are white, like those of the 
male, The weight of a fine 
adult male seems to be be- 
tween two and three hun- 
dred pounds. 
THE EMEv inhabits the 
plains and open forest 
country of Central Australia, 
where it was in former days 
very common, but now 
seems to be decreasing so 
rapidly in numbers that Dr. Bennett. who has had much personal ex- 
perience of this fine bird, fears that it will, ere many years, be numbered with 
the Dodo, the Great Auk, the Nestor, and other extinct species. : 
The food of the Emeu consists of grass and various fruits. Its voice 
is a curious, hollow, booming, or drumming kind of note, produced by 
the peculiar construction of the windpipe. The legs of this bird are shorter 
and stouter in proportion than those of the ostrich, and the wings are very 
short, and so small that when they lie closely against the body they can 
aardly be distinguished from the general plumage. 
EMEU.— (Dy ius Nove FHollandia.) 
